Montessori Mastery School of Odessa is starting the year with significant renovations funded by a donation and is fully enrolled with 135 students in grades prekindergarten through 12 and it has a waiting list.
The upgrades include new chairs, new carpet and new windows. The school is also welcoming First Priority to campus. Its website says First Priority of America exists to educate, train, and provide resources for Christian students to legally form clubs and share the gospel with unbelieving students on the public school campus.
“Because we’re private, we can do this during the school day. We’re not restricted from sharing our faith, so we’re just doing it with all of our kids,” Co-Director Randy McGuire said.
Also new this year is martial arts taught by former student Daygan Talbot. For theater, the program is overseen by Ben Herndon, but it’s being taught by two students who are involved in the community theater.
Montessori Mastery is also growing. They have very few student openings because kids are continuing at the school.
Everything is aimed at getting students to learn responsibility and learn to lead. Last year’s prom and dances were all organized by students and McGuire said the kids did it all and did most of the fundraising.
“We have a regular year full of field trips already planned. Our staff worked the whole summer voluntarily. They’re on a 12-month contract. They get paid for the whole year, but they were up here on their own … putting in a lot of time and effort. I’m talking about everyone, whether it was pre-K or high school, every one of them were up here working on their own to prepare,” McGuire said.
He and his wife, co-director Gloria McGuire, expect to be working on holiday weekends, like Labor Day, but not so many others.
“We have such a wonderful staff. They’re so dedicated,” he added. “We have to have it that way because we don’t micromanage our staff. We trust and believe that they’re going to do the right things with the kids, but it’s just really gratifying to know that …”
McGuire said the school has attracted more families and students through their reputation. The idea is that if students commit to doing the work, they can get a “superior education.” Students are assessed at the beginning of the year.
“The whole point of this is meeting children’s needs,” McGuire said.
He added that the school emphasizes each student’s individual abilities, skills and needs as a learner.
“We can, we have great flexibility. We have a lot of kids doing dual credit. Some are in work programs where they’re at school half day and working half day,” McGuire said.
The students have all bought into the school, as well.
Jaxon Frosig, a 14-year-old eighth grader, has been attending Montessori Mastery since sixth grade.
Frosig said it is “way better than any other one I’ve been to because they’re more friendly and it’s not only computers and stuff.”
He added that at his last school the kids always had to be on the computer for testing, which was “kind of stressful.”
“I like not switching around a whole bunch, because in second grade, we had like four classrooms that we’d have to switch every quarter of the day. It was kind of annoying to always have to pick your stuff up and go somewhere else. It’s kind of nice to be able to just move around one room,” Frosig said.
He added that he has found things he’s learning to be useful.
“It’s more like helpful outside of class than just memorize this and memorize that. It’s more actual interesting facts that they tell us,” Frosig said.
Evie Hawley, a 13-year-old eighth grader, has been going to Montessori Mastery since last year.
“I like the people here. They’re very friendly and welcoming. … I also really like the curriculum. We dive into some deep subjects, but they are explained very well,” Hawley said.
She added that the “teachers show a lot more passion” at Montessori Mastery than they did where she went previously.
“It’s more interesting, instead of just remembering numbers and dates,” Hawley said.
She also likes that the school lets students help with things, even the remodeling. The kids helped take down a wall.
Hawley also has found she can use what she learns outside of school.
Justin Ballard, also a 13-year-old eighth grader, is in his third year at Montessori Mastery.
“One thing I really like about this school is you can learn pretty much anything and everything possible, because if you look around the room, there’s a bunch of different learning supplies that’ll help you learn whatever you want to, whenever you want to,” Ballard said.
His favorite subject is math and he’s learning it in a way that’s helpful in the real world. He’s realized there is math in everything like roofing your house, installing carpet or measuring anything.
“Math is amazing,” Ballard said.
He noted that the people are super friendly and that he feels at home at the school.
When he’s older, Ballard would like to be a baseball player.
“But in baseball, that requires math, too. The speed of a pitch, curve. Outside of school, there’s something that we do on Wednesdays, you could stay and there’s church. … We learn about God. We praise and worship. We play some games. That’s really fun. I love that,” Ballard said.
Brody Bishop, also a 13-year-old eighth grader, is in his fourth year of attending Montessori Mastery. His favorite subjects are math and reading.
“I guess I like how it’s easier to learn here, because whenever you split up, it’s like the old school I went to, you just stay at a desk. You couldn’t talk at all. I like this a lot more, because you have to spread out around the room. All the work here is pretty interesting. It also lets you express yourself more at the school than just being another student there,” Bishop said.
